Shutdown Corner

Shutdown Corner has compiled information from teams, watched college tape and gathered our notes from the Senior Bowl and NFL scouting combine to assemble our top 50 overall prospects available in the 2015 NFL draft.

We'll roll our list out 10 players at a time this week, counting backward from 50 (along with those who just missed the cut). Please note: These are the best players available — and not where we think the prospects will be drafted.

31. Florida State CB P.J. Williams 6-0, 194

Tough, active and physical corner who plays with an edge. The position is still relatively new to him, having switched from safety in high school, but Williams has developed nice instincts and brought some salt to the position. He's still a bit grabby and occasionally loses focus, so Williams could grow with the right teacher in the NFL. His ball skills and instints are strong, and Williams has more physical gifts than 2014 second-round pick Lamarcus Joyner and projects to be an outside starter in the league in time, especially in a man-based scheme. Attention to detail will be the key.

The Baltimore Ravens running back was cut amid public backlash after a video of him striking his fiancee in an elevator was released last September. It turns out the NFL and the Ravens made mistakes in handling Rice's punishment. The NFL's indefinite suspension of Rice was overturned last November when a former U.S. District Court judge ruled the league had improperly increased his punishment after the video surfaced. Rice also got a nice check from the Ravens in a wrongful termination grievance.

The Baltimore Sun's Aaron Wilson reported that Rice was paid $1.588 million by the Ravens in the grievance. Rice was scheduled to make $3.529 million in salary last season, the Sun said, but like most NFL contracts that was not guaranteed. The Ravens and Rice settled before an arbitration hearing, the Sun said.

We must admit we've been a bit skeptical of the NFL's plans to hold the draft at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago given that it's smaller than the venue — Radio City Music Hall — that the league just left and claimed was too small.

As more details come out about the Chicago 2015 NFL draft plans, the more our eyebrow raises. This will be the first NFL draft outside New York City in 50 years, and there are plenty of changes afoot. And sadly, we're not sure we can get on board with a few of them just yet.

NFL senior vice president of events Peter O'Reilly told ESPN.com that there will be an indoor-outdoor element to the draft, with both ESPN and NFL Network having sets inside the venue and outside at Grant Park about a quarter of a mile away.

But get this: All 32 teams will have draft tables with team representatives outside as well as inside. Uh, what?

We counted down all the relevant offensive and defensive free agents, position by position, this week at Shutdown Corner. Now it's time to narrow the focus.

Who are the top 25 difference-makers who are scheduled to hit the open market, regardless of position? Here they are, listed with the team they were with last season:

25. San Diego Chargers running back Ryan Mathews

There's a good chance whoever signs Mathews will regret it the first time he lands on the injury report with some nagging ailment. But the talent is legit. He's a 220-pound back who can catch the ball out of the backfield or run between the tackles. If he could just stay healthy ...

If Jarryd Hayne doesn't make it in the NFL, it won't be because he can't hack it athletically.

Hayne, an Australian rugby star, signed with the San Francisco 49ers on Monday. It's easy to see why he was a great rugby player. He measured 6-foot-2, 226 pounds during a pro day workout for NFL scouts, according to the National Football Post, and looked natural running and catching the ball, even fielding punts. He reportedly ran a 4.53 40-yard dash.

Hayne wants to play running back, and only five running backs at the combine last month ran better than a 4.53.

Hayne won the Rugby League International Federation's International Player of the Year award in 2009, the most prestigious honor in the sport that for all practical purposes crowned him the best rugby player in the world that year. So he's comfortable on the field of competition.

So he's a physical marvel and a phenomenal athlete. But what will that mean for the 49ers?

The Houston Texans have allowed Johnson to seek a trade, per the Houston Chronicle's John McClain, after telling Johnson he'd be in for a reduced role next season.

Texans gave Andre Johnson permission to seek a trade. Told him he'd have a reduced role next season. He asked to be traded or cut instead.

The wide receiver has spent his entire career after the Texans made him their first-round pick in 2003. Johnson, 33, has accumulated 13,597 receiving yards — 12th most in NFL history and second-most among active players, assuming Reggie Wayne returns to the NFL next season.

Shutdown Corner has compiled information from teams, watched college tape and gathered our notes from the Senior Bowl and NFL scouting combine to assemble our top 50 overall prospects available in the 2015 NFL draft.

We'll roll our list out 10 players at a time this week, counting backward from 50 (along with those who just missed the cut). Please note: These are the best players available — and not where we think the prospects will be drafted.

41. Michigan WR-TE Devin Funchess 6-4, 232

Funchess shifted from tight end in the Wolverines' offense to wideout last season and had a disappointing final season. Partly to blame was an early season injury and bad quarterback play, but Funchess also showed a bit too passive of a mentality at times and lacks the long speed to envision him having a Mike Evans-like impact on offense. Funchess is not a tight end, and — despite a first-round-caliber body — too often played like a fourth-rounder. He's an enigma and will require some polish to his game to project him any higher than this. The team that drafts him will need a plan and some patience, and might need to get him to play with better concentration and urgency.

1. Jerry Hughes: Hughes never panned out for the Colts, but two 10-sack seasons in Buffalo have put him in great position as he heads into free agency before his age-27 season.

2. Greg Hardy: This one is complicated. He’s a tremendous talent and won’t turn 27 until July. He also had a domestic violence incident that landed him on the NFL’s exempt list. If not for that he’d get an enormous contract. He might still get it.

3. Jabaal Sheard: Sheard was a better fit as a 4-3 end, but the Browns switched to a 3-4. Sheard’s sack totals have slipped every year since his rookie season. Maybe he can find the right fit in free agency.

Finnegan, 31, would have pinched the Dolphins' salary cap for $6.475 million this coming season, but cutting him reduces that dead-money number to a mere $1 million. In an injury-plagued season — despite playing fairly well early on — Finnegan did not have an interception in 2014.

The Dolphins were busy last week, hacking wide receivers Brian Hartline and Brandon Gibson, and now they've shaved more cap space by cutting Finnegan. Is Mike Wallace next? Don't be shocked if the Dolphins are active in free agency with some of their newfound cap space.

Finnegan might have a limited appeal on the market with age and injuries working against him. But he could be a valuable addition at the right price for a team seeking to add a little spice to their defensive backfield. Finnegan plays with intensity and confidence and could be a nice fit on a contender with depth issues at corner.

1. Brian Hoyer: Like most years, there are no great free-agent options at quarterback. Hoyer has looked good in a few spurts. He also got benched for Johnny Manziel last season when the Browns were still in the playoff race. With Cleveland signing Josh McCown, it appears Hoyer will hit the open market.

2. Mark Sanchez: On the bright side, he had eight starts with the Philadelphia Eagles last season and posted an 88.4 rating, and he has good experience with 70 NFL starts. But he has also shown he is mistake-prone, and that’s unlikely to change.